Richard Castle, Official Consultant
by Selonianth
Summary: Victoria Gates isn't clueless, she just wishes that Castle following Detective Beckett around didn't inherrently make the situation a little more dangerous than it would be otherwise. So she does something about it.


Disclaimer: Don't own Castle or any of it's characters, including Castle himself. C Whut I Did Thar?

Captain Victoria Gates was many things, a former Internal Affairs cop, a hardass (And yes, she knew it), but something she was not, was a person who wasted the resources she had at hand. It had taken her the better part of three months to look at Castle and see more than just the annoying childish writer following one of her detectives for laughs.

Thing was, after seeing three of, by all accounts, her very best detectives backing him stubbornly, once or twice she could even taste the venomous words on their tongue that they bit back, she couldn't help but try to find what they saw in him. At first she saw nothing, assuming they kept him around out of fear of the mayor or for entertainment purposes. Then, as the time went on, she started to see what he brought to the table. She saw why the deceased Captain Roy Montgomery let him stay.

He may not be an investigator, but that seemed to purely be from a crossroads in his life. He had instinct, insight, and knowledge about how criminals worked. His research for his books seemed to come up again and again in their investigations, and she had seen more than once that him being him had opened up a door to her detectives that simply hadn't been there without him. She'd also watched his interrogations of suspects with Detective Beckett and though he occasionally had a bit more emotion than was called for, he was rarely a detriment and no more often than an actual cop, particularly a rookie detective.

He may not have been trained to be a cop, but he seemed to be filling the shoes just fine. These revelations happened at the two month mark of watching his interactions with Beckett's team. They had simply been filed away though, their implications noted but she didn't let on that she had warmed to the murder mystery writer. Till now that is. Once again she'd gotten word that he was applying for a carry permit for a handgun. Previously she'd simply ignored it, leaving whether or not he gained a gun to her contact's decisions.

Now… her revelations made her take a moment to think it over. He always insisted on going out with Detective Beckett anyway and having an unarmed person with her could put the detective in undue danger but while her contacts had no problem informing her, the problem was that Castle didn't really qualify for any of the civilian licenses. There was… a way though. Calling them and telling them to reject it immediately Victoria Gates started a small seam of paperwork of her own. She was careful, wouldn't want Beckett or her team to hear about it before the surprise could be sprung.

She filed forms creating an official consultant position, empowering that consultant with some authority, enabling that consultant to carry a gun while consulting, requiring many of the same things a detective's position did so far as a psych eval. and gun proficiency test at the range.

Then, several days after the start of her paperwork crusade she called Beckett and Castle into her office, making sure to wear a severe expression. When the two were in front of her desk she looked up at then and spoke, "I hear you applied for a gun carry license again Mister Castle, and you sponsored it Detective."

"Sir, I can explain, Castle comes with me often when we're going to a suspects house or into a not-so-safe area of the city and without a weapon-" Detective Beckett started.

"Without a weapon he forces you to focus on keeping him alive, as well as yourself, splitting your attention and making the situation unsafe for both of you." Gates interrupted, keeping her severe face plastered in place.

"Sir that's not fair. He's a very valuable part of my team, several of our cases could not have been solved, much less solved correctly, without his insight," the detective attempted to defend, needlessly, Castle's position in the team.

"Of that I am aware, I was merely stating that him being without a gun makes a situation more dangerous for all involved, am I not correct?" Gates pressed.

"Yes Sir… You are correct," Beckett replied defeated getting a hurt look from Castle.

"That's why I wrote this up," Gates said sliding several of the forms across the desk. "I am aware of, and agree with, your opinion of his value to your team. I didn't call you here to argue it, or to kick him out of my precinct. Those forms will officially welcome you, Mr. Castle, into this precinct as a matter of fact. They are already filed, and accepted, with city hall. I don't wish to kick you off Beckett's team. On the contrary, I've seen what you bring to the table. Instead I want you to sign these forms and become an official consultant. Previously you were simply a civilian who had been allowed to follow Detective Beckett around after filing a few forms but were not a consultant. These forms will allow you to carry a gun, while consulting for Detective Beckett, arrest people, while consulting, claim yourself as NYPD, while consulting etcetera, etcetera."

"I thought…" Castle started, a little stunned.

"That I hated you? That I wanted a civilian gone from my precinct? At first… I did. I was close minded. Then I began to understand. I looked over the old reports filed by the late Captain Montgomery and saw his glowing reports of you. So I watched closer, I saw that your arrival to the office always accompanied by smiles and good humor. I saw you and Detective Beckett sitting together before the board and suddenly hop up to go after a lead you came up with together. I no longer doubt your value to this precinct. I do however want to state that if you act in any way as a detriment to the city of New York after you sign these papers while on the job, I will revoke this and kick you out of this precinct, mayor or not, faster than you can blink. Am I clear?"

"Crystal Sir," Beckett replied, elbowing Castle in the ribs.

"Yes Sir…" the writer replied, reaching forward to pick up the small stack of papers to sign them.

"Good, now after you sign them you have to go qualify at the shooting range and then they will issue you a side-arm. I trust that won't be a problem." Gates said.

Beckett snorted at this gaining a small glare from the captain. "Sir, he once suckered me into letting him take home copies of crime scene photos by acting like a bad shot, then placing three very quick shots into the ten-ring of a target at thirty yards. Qualifying won't be a problem."

Now a raised eyebrow was sent in Castle's direction who shrugged, "I may have grown up not exactly wanting for money but that doesn't mean I grew up isolated from guns. One of my mother's husbands, before he left her, loved to take me sport shooting and to the range. I learned how to clay-shoot with shotguns, decent ranged shooting with rifles, and self-defense with pistols. He was a man of the opinion that wealth shouldn't make someone complacent so every once in a while I go to my house outside of the city, where I do have a carry permit, and practice to keep my skills sharp."

Captain Gates nodded appreciatively; it was certainly a respectable position to take. She didn't doubt that he had a gun in his home, simply couldn't use it on the street. "Very well, go qualify. We're done here."

A/N: Please take note, I don't know if there is a time required between attempts to gain a gun carry license in NYC but I do know that there are very, very, few reasons a civvie can carry in the city proper. On their own property and in their apartment, yes. Anywhere else? Very difficult to qualify.


End file.
